5 Things Killing Your PC Right Now

You’re killing your computer and you might not realize it. Newer computers are more reliable and less likely to randomly crash than those five years ago, so you’re less likely to realize there is a problem until it is too late. Below are a few things that can be affecting your computer health even as you read this article.

Computer Health Issues

Heat – So you’ve had a computer running 24/7 on your desk for the past few years. When was the last time you inspected the rear and front grills of the computer for dust buildup? Chances are the computer’s fans and motherboard are caked with crud. Heat can directly impact your computer health. Once a year take a moment to carefully blow out the your computer’s insides, as well as the fans. Remember, when blowing out fans, be sure to place your finger on one of the blades to prevent the fan from over-spinning when you clean it. Over-spinning a fan can damage the bearings.

Fragmented Hard Drive – With the proliferation of Solid State Drives, fragmentation is less of a problem. But if you’re still using a traditional spinning drive, be sure to schedule Windows to defrag the drive once a month. The more fragmented your drive becomes, the more it has to work to read and write data. The more it works, the more heat it generates and the more likely the drive is to mechanically fail.

Never Rebooting – While it’s true we no longer have to reboot our computer as often as we used to, many users never shutdown or reboot their computers at all. Sleep and Hibernate modes on you computer help you get back up and running quickly, but it is still best to occasionally shut down your computer for the night or at the very least reboot the machine.

Unnecessary Programs – Just because you have a 2 TB hard drive doesn’t mean you need to fill it with programs you will seldom or never use. Not only are you potentially adding to your boot time and unnecessarily wasting RAM and hard drive space, you could be opening your computer up to security flaws. Missing patches and other exploits on programs put your PC at risk. So if you do not need to run programs like Java, Adobe Reader, or others, uninstall them.

Missing Updates – Computer security is essential. Scheduling automatic Windows Updates is great, but are you also updating your browser? Are you updating programs like Java and Adobe Reader which hackers frequently use to exploit vulnerable computers? Along with uninstalling computer programs you never use, make sure you are running the latest versions of those programs you do use. What about your antivirus. Is it running and up to date. You may be shocked to see your virus definitions have not been updated for quite a while. Double check.

Modern Operating System and advances in computer hardware have been making it easier for us to enjoy a virtually care-free computing lifestyle. The above are a few concerns that can affect your computer health if you are not aware of their dangers. Take a moment to audit your own computer to make sure you are not guilty of any of the above.